Many printed circuit or wiring boards are interconnected to other circuit devices and equipments by forming contact pads along one or more edge sections of the boards and contacting these pads with terminals projecting from a connector housing. In some instances the connector terminals are permanently secured to the pads by coating the pads with solder and engaging the terminals with the pads and then reflowing the solder. In such operations great care must be exercised to insure that each terminal engages only one contact pad.
The problem is particularly acute in manufacturing large size circuit boards with large numbers of closely spaced small contact pads formed on both the upper and underside of the board that are engaged by two arrays of closely spaced thin spring wire terminals. Inasmuch as the contact pads project from the surface of the circuit board, there are formed discrete grooves between each pair of pads. When assembling the connector with the board, there is a tendency for the terminals to fall from the contact pads and into the grooves, or ride into the grooves during the initial assembly of the connector onto the board.
In some instances one terminal is positioned in a groove so as to engage neither of the adjacent contact pads; thus, a subsequent reflow soldering operation is ineffective to secure a terminal to a contact pad. The terminal may be positioned askew of a pair of terminals so that an ensuing reflow soldering operation results in the securing of the terminal in bridging relation to two adjacent contact pads. In other instances, a pair of connector terminals may fall within a groove while engaging portions of adjacent contact pads so that the subsequent reflow solder operation function to establish a conductive bridge between adjacent contact pads. Prior to the reflow soldering of these boards, it is necessary that the terminal positions be visually checked and, as required, the terminals must be manually repositioned to overlie individual contact pads. These operations are very tedious and exacting, requiring exorbitant amounts of shop time.